Following up on the good news of sister Chrysler in America, Fiat do Brasil has some good news of their own to send embattled Turin’s way. As of March 20, the Uno has officially pushed ahead of the VW Gol and has taken the sales crown in Brazil. According to Brazilian car site webmotors.com.br, this is the first time the Uno has been ahead of the Gol for an extended period of time. Hitherto, the Uno had threatened VW’s pride and joy a month or another, then lagged behind.
“I just don’t get it? How can you like THAT thing?”
A former TTAC contributor was busy berating my questionable tastes. I had written an article called, “Choose Your 20 Year Sentence” where you could have any vehicle in the world… with a few small catches.
You had to maintain the vehicle yourself for 20 years from the ages of 20 to 40, it had to be a new car back in the day that cost no more than $25k (in today’s dollars), and you had to use it as your exclusive source of auto transportation.
Like all ‘mature’ men who prioritize fashion or function, I had an inkling of what my modern day choice would have been. It nearly shocked the hair off of my friend. Who we shall simply call Paul Niedermeyer.
When, in early February, the first (unconfirmed) rumors made the rounds that UAW’s Bob King would get a seat on Opel’s supervisory board, the assumption was that King will speak for “the equity side.” According to the “co-determination law,” the supervisory board of a large German company consists of 50 percent equity side and 50 percent labor, with the chairman having two votes in case of a tie. The UAW, through VEBA, owns 10 percent of the stock of GM. That puts King definitely on the equity side. One would assume. Read More >
Video killed the radio star. And the Internet is about to kill the auto industry. Researchers at the University of Michigan noted a disturbing trend: More young adults would rather surf the web than cruise the highway. In a new study, Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the U-M Transportation Research Institute found that a higher proportion of Internet users is associated with fewer drivers licenses among young persons. Read More >
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has come in for some criticism for awkwardly relating what he characterized as a “humorous” story involving his father, former American Motors CEO and later Michigan governor, George Romney. In 1954 George Romney became head of the newly merged (from Hudson and Nash) American Motors Corp., following the sudden death of his corporate mentor and patron, George W. Mason. One of the first things Romney did was to close the money-losing Hudson assembly plant in Detroit and consolidate all Hudson and Nash assembly in Nash’s Kenosha facility, which put about 4,300 Michiganders out of work. The story that Mitt Romney related had to do with his father’s campaign for governor in 1962, eight years later. The senior Romney was in a parade and apparently the high school marching band in front of his parade car didn’t know how to play The Victors, the fight song of the University of Michigan. Instead they kept trying to play On Wisconsin, much to the chagrin of Romney’s campaign staff, who didn’t want Michigan voters reminded of the plant closing. Though it’s clear to me from the context that Mitt Romney found humor in the parade incident, not in the plant closing, Democrats have seized on his remark, saying to it betrays a callous attitude towards working people.
Its squat boxer architecture meant a low centre of gravity, and by building in a low rate of roll and very little offset or castor in the MacPherson strut front suspension, the handling was truly revelatory, refreshingly neutral with precise steering…endlessly chuckable. [They]…were willing rather than fast, and there was more grip than the boxer engine…could ever hope to exploit…away from straight roads it still took a genuinely quick car to catch one.
Does this sound like a review of the 2012 Subaru Impreza? You may be surprised to read that the words here describe a car from a completely different country, with a culture and ethos that couldn’t be more different – but a car that may be the spiritual predecessor to the Impreza.
Daimler Benz will launch a new lighter and more fuel efficient C-Klasse in 2014. Auto Motor und Sport caught a prototype. The Erlkönig is only slightly camouflaged. Its Blade Runner outfit could not stop the AMS PhotoShop expert from recreating a C Class as it hopefully will appear in showrooms two years from now. See below. Read More >
Toyota will increase production of the Toyota RAV4 from 150,000 to 200,000 per year at their Woodstock, Ontario, Canada plant. The investment will add 400 new jobs and Toyota’s investment will total $80 million.
Honda will build its Fit compact at the new Honda factory in Mexico, from where it will be exported to the U.S. and other markets. This is what the company told Hans Greimel, Automotive News [sub] rezident in Tokyo. Read More >
The Maverick (and its Mercury sibling, the Comet) was once one of the most numerous cars on American roads. From a period extending from 1970 through about the middle 1980s, the Maverick was everywhere, much as the Taurus is today. It was a cheap, simple machine, based on the same outdated but sturdy and well-understood-by-mechanics chassis design that Ford used beneath Falcons, Mustangs, Granadas, you name it, going back to the early 1960s. The Maverick is just about extinct now, other than a few kept alive by collectors; these days, I might see one every year or so at self-service junkyards. That makes this one (spotted at a yard in Northern California last week) a special Junkyard Find. Read More >
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